Commander of Nothing

She stretched herself out, her average height barely stretched the length of the couch.

“Wait, when did I get up here? Last I remember I’d just gotten out of the shower, I came and sat down against the couch. From then I must have fallen asleep, but that still doesn’t explain how I got up here.”

She sat upright and motioned for the boy to join her on the couch again, she was tired enough though that soon after he did join her, she flopped back down resting her head on his lap. She did actually stay awake this time, but just took the chance to spread back out and relax again.

She sat back up, allowing the boy to move wherever he saw fit for whichever option she’d offered.

She took his hand and allowed herself to be led back into the bedroom for the team. She wasn’t exactly comfortable with this arrangement, but she wasn’t all that uncomfortable with it either. 

“So, like, how does this work. Granted we’re not all that large of people, but that is a fairly small bed.”

It was evident on her face, that she had already figured out some of the semantics of it. 

“This is part of a slightly larger set, unfortunately the set was stolen from it’s original location a number of years ago. Nobody knows where most of it is, believe it or not it originated in Atlas. It wasn’t particularly used in battle..more of an ornamental set I suppose.” Sheathing the dagger and slipping it into her pack.

She poked her way through the piles and found one or two things that were worth her time, a couple hand axes that would work well as a gift for Melyn, and for whatever reason, there was a completely worthless, heavily rusted knife that practically called to her. The structure of the teal, blue, and gold of the handle, the patina of the blade. She had seen it before somewhere. Or at least one similar. She gathered it up, or at least, tried to before the rusted blade flopped clumsily out of the hilt. 

Her face was now beaming bright red. She was raised in a rather conservative family, and although she did have two brothers, her parents were always very careful that they wouldn’t know anything about how that worked. Hence her embarrassment.

“Sorry, I was just raised in a home that wasn’t very open to that. In all honesty my parents likely would have been among those trying to get rid of the exhibit. So, mostly because I don’t have any experience with that I might ask if we can move on to a different topic?”

Erin brought her finger to her chin, tapping it several times.

Erin slid her way through the opening, doing her best to pay extra attention to her semblance. It may not be perfect, or really even do all that much, but even a spit second’s worth of notice was worth the extra effort.

She was not certain what she was looking for, and as such started grabbing as much of what she could. Not out of greed, but just trying to be sure she grabbed the right item. She returned to May with an assortment of old weapons and armor pieces, most of no value. She hoped the correct weapon was in the pile.

“Life would be so much easier if there was an obvious sign that something was valuable like there always is in the movies! I just grabbed whatever I could and hoped I got the right one at some point. I didn’t know whether you were going to be following me down or not.”

She laughed, trying to hide her nervousness, a goal of which she was only partially successful with at best.

Her face was now beaming bright red. She was raised in a rather conservative family, and although she did have two brothers, her parents were always very careful that they wouldn’t know anything about how that worked. Hence her embarrassment.

“Sorry, I was just raised in a home that wasn’t very open to that. In all honesty my parents likely would have been among those trying to get rid of the exhibit. So, mostly because I don’t have any experience with that I might ask if we can move on to a different topic?”

“Yeah..right…I didn’t tell you what it was did I?” Still slightly ignoring the question itself as she led her along. Passing by another set of ruins, more settlements that had long ago been abandoned. “Would you believe me if I told you it was a weapon?” Glancing back at her briefly.

Erin dropped the nonexistent hem of her shirt after having cleaned the dirt off her face.

“I don’t know that I’d have a choice but to believe you! It seems to be a somewhat important venture we’re on. I’ve heard of such sets of armor and weaponry, but from my understanding, many of them were last used in the war. I’m honestly slightly curious how you found it’s location, but I don’t know that I’ll ask. Sources of information are private to some people and I can respect that.”

Erin had not heard anything about any of these sets being in the area. There were several that had been found in the outskirts of Mantle. She’d even helped on some of the hunts when in the more introductory combat schools. 

Erin giggled, a mix of awkward, and shy. She returned the thumbs up, not knowing what else to do herself. Not normally one to care about her appearance, Erin normally would stay all dirty and sweaty. This time however, in front of a person who didn’t know her well, she pulled up the bottom of her strangely torn shirt and began wiping the filth from her face.

“Glad to hear it, as much as I love a good fight, I don’t think we could take the rest all at once.”

Another awkward laugh.

Erin scoffed, 

The girl laughed in a very forced and awkward manner, hoping above anything else that there wasn’t any such art there today. She had seen the old paintings and sculptures in classes that she took from the normal school, but by no means was she prepared for that kind of exhibit otherwise.

“I take it you went to that one?”

She stretched herself out, her average height barely stretched the length of the couch.

“Wait, when did I get up here? Last I remember I’d just gotten out of the shower, I came and sat down against the couch. From then I must have fallen asleep, but that still doesn’t explain how I got up here.”

She sat upright and motioned for the boy to join her on the couch again, she was tired enough though that soon after he did join her, she flopped back down resting her head on his lap. She did actually stay awake this time, but just took the chance to spread back out and relax again.

She sat back up, allowing the boy to move wherever he saw fit for whichever option she’d offered.

Erin spoke quietly into her scroll, making certain that she wouldn’t attract more Grimm. Her poor mood had nearly done that earlier. Now it was time to be more careful.

Erin scoffed, 

Still..she waited and when she had an opening she fired a fire dust round directly at the creature’s face, apparently blinding it at least momentarily. Her plan was to get the creature to take a few blind swipes with the tail which it seemed to do. Sort of spinning around for a moment trying to locate it’s prey. The effects were shaken off and the creature took a still somewhat blind strike towards Erin..

She got a call on her scroll, most likely her parents trying to check up on her. She was in a situation that she knew they’d hate, alone with a boy! Scandal of the century!

She could feel the warm sun loosening up her stiff muscles. Her focus had returned, and she was ready for a fight. The girl had found a long dead shrub that had concealed her position to the grimm. All at once it seemed, she leapt out, and hurled herself at her foe. As she reached the top of her arc, her shoulders nearly level with it’s tail, she covered the other surface of her staff with ice dust. Her plan was to burn one set of eyes, and freeze the other set. Unfortunately she landed unsteadily. She had still managed to burn the first set, but a claw interrupted her second attack. She was blindsided, her semblance wasn’t there. But how? She slammed into the ground, being thrown from it’s back. Whatever happened in that collision had brought it back though. Now this would be a fair fight. A smirk tugged on the corner of her mouth,

“Looks like it’s time to have some fun.”